Worst Experience
by Zoja
Summary: There weren't a lot of things which could scare the life out of Jack Hudson, but the phone call from his terrified daughter certainly could. When a person from his past threatened his family's safety, Jack experienced the worst time in his life.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I don't even know where the idea for this story came from, but I decided to write it. It'll consist of few chapters, I'm not sure how many, yet, but it's not going to be very long. I completely don't know ASL or any other sign language, so I wanted to give a small explanation. I just write sentences I want them to say, as I have no idea how they would be signed. Bold indicates that the words are signed fluently, while "**something... like... this...**" means that it's signed, but the person isn't fluent and signs slowly and poorly. Underlined words are said over the phone. I hope you're going to forgive me my mistakes and like the story.

* * *

There weren't a lot of thing which could scare the life out of Jack Hudson and everybody knew it. There was nothing more important to him than safety of his family and he never hid the fact that he'd sacrifice everything only to make sure that his wife and children weren't in danger. That's why they weren't surprised when they saw his reaction to the phone call, which he received a moment after getting back from the lunch break.

He has just sat in the chair behind his desk when his cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocked and smiled, when he saw his wife's and photo on the screen. However, the moment he answered it, the smile faded from his face and the happiness was replaced by fear and panic.

"Daddy..! Come..! Daddy..!" he heard his daughter's terrified voice and felt his heart clench.

"Sarah..?" was the only thing that escaped his mouth.

She was repeating those two words like in trance, two of not so many words she could say, and he knew that something had to be wrong. He cursed, knowing that he couldn't do anything to make her know that he heard her and was going to come to her as fast as he can. Then the connection was suddenly cut and he stood up quickly and ran out of the bullpen without word. The rest of the team exchanged looks and Bobby immediately went after his friend. He found Jack pressing the button for the lift impatiently, cursing and shouting for it to come faster.

"It's not going to make it work, Mate." he said, placing a hand on Jack's shoulder; something he always did when he wanted his best friend to calm down. "I know you're scared, but you really need to calm down."

"I need to get to them, don't you understand? We decided to put the autodial for my number on our home phone as well as Sue's and taught Sarah to use it just in case! I've never heard her so scared before and there was nothing I could do so she would know that I'm on my way…"

Bobby nodded, understanding the reason for Jack's frustration. There were few times when he talked over the phone with his son, when the school couldn't reach his mother and the teacher wasn't able to calm Brayden down. It was very difficult to do it when he couldn't just take his child into his arms and had to repeat comforting words over the phone, but it was absolutely impossible to do anything if the child couldn't hear and was way too young to even start reading. Nobody has ever heard Jack say even smallest complaint about his daughter being deaf, but he was sure that it was one of those moments when he wished that little Sarah was hearing.

After what seemed like an eternity, the door of the lift opened and Jack jumped in, followed by Bobby. When he looked at Jack's face, the shorter man send him a grateful look, to which he only responded by nod. He knew that there was nothing what could stop Hudson from going home, and not only he didn't try but didn't even want to do it. If there was nothing to worry, Sue would have already called her husband, and she wouldn't have let Sarah make the phone call in the first place.

"Keys." he said firmly, extending his hand into Jack's direction, and after a moment of hesitation his friend placed the keys in his hand and got into the car. "Sue would kill me if she heard that I let you drive."

He drove to Hudsons' house as fast as was possible with obeying the traffic regulations and making sure that their journey was safe. He completely ignored Jack's impatient complaints that he's going too slowly, and only when he told him that his family needed him in one piece, Hudson stopped talking. Finally he parked the car in front of the house, which Jack and Sue have lived in since getting married. They both jumped out of the car and went to the door, which they've found open. It made Jack even more worried because he knew that Sue always made sure that they were closed after getting back home. And she wasn't even planning to go out today, because Chris was sick and he promised her to do all the shopping...

"Sparks?" Jack heard Bobby's voice and shook his head, getting back to reality.

He took the gun into his hand, opened the door and slowly pushed it open, afraid of what he's going to find inside. He looked around, his concern raising as there was no trace of Levi, who he expected to run to him. They slowly went into the building, and looked around; the house seemed to be empty and quiet, but when they listened more carefully, they heard the sound of sobbing coming from the storeroom under the stairs. Jack looked at Bobby and went to open it.

The first thing he saw was Levi's golden hair, standing out in the dark room. Only when he lit up the small lamp on the ceiling he noticed that the dog was lying on the floor, and there were small arms around his neck; his daughter was there as well, terrified, cuddled to the animal, sobbing. Her face was hidden in the dog's fur, and when she noticed the light she jumped slightly, let out a horrified noise, and cuddled more to Levi. He felt like millions of pins stuck into his heart and crouched on the floor, placing his gun down. The dog only raised his head a bit and nudged Sarah with his nose.

Jack extended his hand and placed it gently on child's shoulder. It made the girl jump, but as if she recognized him by his touch, she looked up. Her huge, brown eyes were full of tears and all of them streamed down her face the moment she saw him.

"Daddy..." she was in his arms within a moment, pressed against his chest and crying heavily, while he stroked her hair and back.

He slowly stood up from the floor, lifting her with him. Her small arms immediately went around his neck, and he held her against himself with one arm under her bottom, and the second one continuously stroking her hair. He went out of the storeroom only to see that Bobby wasn't standing where he left him.

"I found Sue!" he heard in the same moment and went to the kitchen as fast as possible with the child snuggled into him, because it was the room where Bobby's voice came from.

He felt his legs bend under him when he saw Sue's limp body lying on the floor, and the pool of blood next to her head. Her blackberry was next to her and he knew that it had to be left there by Sarah. He only hugged the girl tighter, knowing how terrifying it had to be for her to see Sue like that.

"She's alive." Bobby answered the unspoken question which was very visible in his friend's eyes, and Jack let out a breath with small relief. "She's got a bad wound on her head, but at least it's not bleeding anymore. I called for an ambulance, they should be here any moment. She regained consciousness for a moment."

"Have you found Christopher?" Bobby shook his head.

"When she saw me she said that someone took him and we need to find him. Then she passed out again."

In this moment they heard loud knocking to the door and Bobby ran to open it. Paramedics went into the kitchen and got to Sue, checking her state.

"We're taking her to the hospital." one of them looked at Jack, and he only nodded "Will someone be going with her?"

"I will." answered Hudson, following them outside, where he found Bobby "Take Sarah."

He passed his daughter to Bobby, and the girl immediately started whimpering, extending her arms in his direction.

"**It's okay, Sweetheart. Stay with Uncle Crash.**" he signed, and disgruntled Sarah laid her head on Bobby's shoulder.

She watched him with sad eyes, when he got into the ambulance. Bobby went with her to the car and sat her on the passenger's seat.

"**We... call... aunt... Lucy...**" he signed slowly, speaking every word. Every time he was alone with this little girl he wished he had learnt more ASL. "**Go... to... dad... later...**"

He saw her sign something, and even though she did it slowly, he had no idea what she wanted to say. He sighed, took the phone out of his pocket and dialled Lucy's number.

* * *

Jack was sitting on the chair in the hospital, with his elbows on his knees and face hidden in his hands, waiting for anyone to come and tell him any information about Sue. He couldn't remember being so scared in his entire life; not only he didn't know if his wife was fine, but he also had no idea what happened to his son, where he was and if he was fine. The only thing he knew was that he wouldn't survive if something happened to them. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he looked up he saw that it belonged to Lucy.

"The team went to your house… They told me that they promise to bring Chris back to you and Sue sound and safe." said the woman, sitting in the chair next to him. "Bobby will be here any moment with Sarah. Any news?"

Jack only shook his head, but in this moment the doctor came out and approached them.

"Mr. Hudson..?" he asked and Jack immediately stood up. They moved a bit, so the doctor could talk to him privately. "Your wife received a strong blow in her head and is suffering a concussion, but other than this she's fine and so is the baby."

"The baby..?" he asked in shock, and the doctor nodded.

"Well, I thought you know…" Jack saw that the man was visibly abashed "Your wife is about five weeks pregnant…"

"I had no idea… When will she be released? Can I go to her?"

"We want her to stay over night, but if everything will be okay she'll be allowed to go home tomorrow morning. And yes, you can go to her. In fact she's been asking for you and Sarah, which I assume will be the lady over there?"

They both heard the door open, and as if on command, Bobby came through them. He was holding Sarah's hand and the girl was almost running to keep with his pace. However, the moment she saw her father she let go of Bobby's hand and ran to Jack.

"No, this is Sarah." Jack said to the doctor, lifting the child up, and the man nodded. "I can take her with me, can't I?"

A moment later he stepped into the hospital room. His eyes landed on the bed, when he could see Sue laying still, with her eyes closed. There was no blood in her blonde hair anymore and if it wasn't for the bandage, he wouldn't be able to say that something happened to her. He touched her hand and she immediately opened her eyes. She smiled slightly at the sight of them and Jack sat Sarah at the edge of the bed. He noticed that according to the unspoken agreement between his girls, their daughter laid down next to Sue and snuggled into her side, while Sue's hand immediately started to stroke the girl's long, wavy, dark hair.

"How is she?" she asked, when Jack placed the chair on another side of the bed and sat in it, taking her free hand into his.

"She's still a bit scared I think… And quite moody… She just wants to stick to you or me… She didn't even want to stay with Crash to let me come here with you…" he squeezed her hand, caressing the top of it with his thumb. "How do you feel?"

"My head hurts and I feel week… But besides this I'm completely fine, even the doctor said so… I know that he talked to you, so I guess you know about the baby..?" Jack nodded, and Sue let out a small sigh "It should have been me who told you, but I didn't even know myself until he came and said that it's fine…"

"It's okay, Sue. The only thing that matter is that you are both okay." he said, leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"What about Chris..? Do you know anything..?" Jack swallowed the lump, which suddenly appeared in his throat and shook his head.

"Lucy said that they're looking for him… I think that as for this moment probably all police departments as well as the F.B.I. are looking for him…" he said in shaking voice, and noticed that a tear escaped each of Sue's eyes. "They'll find him… They have to find him… He's going to be fine, Susie, I promise…" his voice broke, and he couldn't fight the tears any longer and they felt wet traces on his cheeks as well.

She moved her hand out of his to softly caress his face, and then lifted it, motioning for him to come closer and let her hug him. He understood her movement without problems, sat at the edge of the bed and leaned down to hide his face in her neck. Her arm immediately went around his shoulders and started caressing his back.

Lucy watched the scene through slightly opened door and sighed, wiping away the single tear. There weren't a lot of times when Jack called his wife Susie, she only heard it few times and it was only when he was terribly scared. She knew that they both of her friends were frightened, there was no doubts for it and the way Sarah acted only indicated that even though she couldn't understand what was actually going on, she knew that something was wrong. They could only hope that everything was going to be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Italics means text messages, everything else is the same as in the previous chapter.

* * *

Few hours later, almost the whole team gathered in the conference room. The only missing person was Lucy, who Jack asked to take care of Sarah. He wanted to come to the office and be as big help as possible, because he had no doubts that there was no way he would be allowed to really work on the investigation. Closeness of the other team members could be ignored, but in his case it wasn't an option, because it was his own son they were looking for and he fully understood the situation. However, when he was leaving the hospital, he promise Sue that he'll bring Christopher back to her and he wasn't going to let her down. It was the only thing he now wanted to see; their little boy safe and sound in his mother's arms.

All of his friends were watching him carefully. They were all worried about him, as well as about Sue, and they were unanimous that it would be better if he was either at home or in the hospital with Sue. But they also understood his need for being here, and knowing how was the investigation. He didn't want to hear that they didn't have anything, yet; he only accepted this explanation when he heard it from Dimitrius. Only then he agreed to go home and be with Sarah, who needed him much more right now than the case.

He parked his car in front of the house and breathed deeply. Only hours earlier he came here with Bobby to see that one of his worst anxieties has become reality. He approached the door, slowly turned the key and stepped inside. It felt so wrong, when he wasn't greeted first by Levi, and then by Chris, who ran to greet him every time he came home from work, unless he arrived really late, when his children were already asleep. It felt so strange, not hearing Sue's voice, who even during cooking tried to teach Sarah new words to say.

He sighed and went to the kitchen. He felt relief when he noticed that the pool of blood was gone from the floor; Lucy had to clean it and he was really grateful for it. He wasn't sure if he would be able to clean it without breakdown.

"Lucy?!" he shouted, wondering where they can be.

"Living room!" he heard her answer, and went to the room.

He saw both of them on the couch. Lucy was holding one of Sarah's books and reading it to her by signing, while his daughter watched her carefully. However, the moment she noticed him standing in the door she lost interest in the story. She jumped off the couch, ran to him and when he lifted her up her arms she placed her head on his shoulder, clinging to him. He kissed the top of her head and sighed; he and Sue always did everything for their children not to have any reason to be frightened and his daughter has never been the kind of child who clung to her parents all the time. In other circumstanced he may have felt happy that his little girl needs him so much, but right now seeing Sarah this way made him feel horrible.

"She didn't want to eat dinner, but gave up when I told her that I will have to tell Mommy and it will make her feel sad. Besides this she's very silent today."

"I can only guess what she's been through… She may be two and may not be able to understand a lot of things but I'm sure she was terrified… She probably saw came to Sue for comfort, but she was just lying there, without any reaction… I think that would be the moment when she took Sue's phone and called me… She couldn't even know if it worked… You don't even know how scared she was when I found her… She's afraid of darkness and yet, she went into the storeroom without any light and hid there, clinging to Levi… By the way, where is he?"

"Bobby took him to vet… That's why it took him so long to come to the hospital with Sarah. He said that Levi was very weak, his breath was heavy and he didn't move much… He couldn't just leave him like that, obviously hurting." Jack nodded his head, completely understanding it. It would be just cruel and only a monster could do something like this. And then he started to feel horrible; he was kind of this monster, he saw Levi in this storeroom but completely ignored the way the dog was... He should have at least told Bobby to check on him, not just take Sarah out and look for Sue.

"He gave the vet my phone number and he called earlier to say that they had to make a surgery… It seems that Levi was kicked strongly and had broken ribs, but one of them slightly damaged his lungs. His condition was serious and the vet says that if we lingered much longer he could have died, but he's going to recover… "

"At least one good news I can give to Sue…" sighed Hudson, and Lucy placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Everything is going to be okay, Jack... According to Sue's words, God always gives everyone what they deserve, and you two definitely didn't deserve anything bad… He'll take care of Chris and bring him back to you."

"Thanks." he smiled, but it was one of the most unconvincing smiled he has ever given.

"I'll be going now. Hold on and don't lose hope, Sue and Sarah need you now more than ever."

Lucy was soon gone and he started to wonder what he should do. The house was so empty and silent without Sue, Chris and Levi, and it suddenly felt so strange and unfamiliar to be there. He smiled slightly when he noticed that Sarah was slowly falling sleep on his shoulder. It was an early hour even for her, but he guessed that she just had to be tired from all the events that happened. He went upstairs and took her to the bathroom, making a stop in her bedroom on the way to take her pyjamas. He bathed her, helped her get dressed and brush her teeth. Then they just went back to her room and he brushed her hair. He guessed that she really had to be tired because if there was anything Sarah absolutely hated, it was brushing her hair. He had to admit that he didn't like it, too, and making anything with it was just driving him crazy. Even something so simple as ponytail seemed impossible for him; there was always a part of Sarah's hair which didn't want to cooperate and was shooting out. He was sure that Sue was going to be mad in the morning, but he just left it dissolved.

"**Good night, Daddy.**" she signed to him, when he tucked her in.

"**Goodnight, Sweetheart.**" he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

He left the small lamp on her bedside table lit up, and thanks to it there was a faint light in the room. He noticed that Sarah quickly fell asleep, so he just went out, leaving the door open. He took a shower, and then went to his own bedroom only to lay down in the bed and turn on the TV, which was there. He and Sue used it rarely, only when one of them was sick and had to stay in bed all day; Chris and Sarah often joined them then, because usually, they were sick then, too. He heard the sound of the new text message and looked at the phone.

"_Miss you :-("_ he read the message from Sue and sighed.

"_We miss you, too. How do you feel?"_

"_Okay, but worried. Any news about Chris?" _

"_None... Crash'll tell me when they find something. I'll let you know, then." _

"_Thanks. How's Sarah?" _

"_She's asleep now. She was really frightened, but I guess everything really tired her."_

"_Probably. Can't wait to go home." _

"_I know. The doctor didn't let us stay with you for long. We'd rather you were here with us. We'll come as early in the morning as allowed and take you home." _

"_Something to wait for. Love you." _

Before he was able to touch the button to respond, his phone rang. He noticed the unknown number on the screen, and started to wonder who it can be.

"Hudson."

"Hello, Agent Hudson." he heard deformed voice, and his heart clenched. "I bet you and your lovely wife miss your little boy."

"Where is he?" Jack's heart was beating fast, fear very audible in his shaking voice.

"He's here, with me. Someone would bet that the son of the Special Agent wouldn't be such a big coward as he is..."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"I am someone who wants to see you suffer as much as I did because of you, Agent Hudson. I promise you that you'll experience the worst days of your life, knowing that your son is dying out there, and you can't do anything about it."

He heard the sound of the finished connection and threw the phone on the bed. He felt angry, not only because someone obviously wanted to play with him, but also because he felt helpless. He had no idea where Chris was, where to look for him and who could take him, and why he was taken was the biggest mystery. He decided to do the only thing he could, and knew that he should do, and called Bobby. He immediately felt guilty, when he heard Brayden's yells in the phone, and reproached himself that he should have called someone else.

"What happened, Sparks?" asked Bobby, trying to outshout his son.

"The person who has Christopher called me." he said, and then repeated louder when Crash said that he didn't hear him.

"What?! Don't go anywhere, I'm coming to you."

Jack stood up from the bed, placed the phone on the bedside table. He looked at it for a moment, wondering if he should send the message to Sue, but decided otherwise. She didn't need to be worried more than she already was. It was definitely enough for her that she had to be alone in the hospital; he didn't want to leave her there, but the doctor was adamant in his opinion that Sue should rest and the company would only make it impossible. He gave up only after a long fight, when his resigned wife told him to go. Then, he went to Sarah's room to check on his daughter; he could hear quiet whimpering coming from the sleeping girl and approached the bed, sitting on the edge. He gently touched her head, and caressed her hair and until she calmed down.

It turned out that Bobby informed the rest about the phone call and it didn't take them long to come to his house. He was surprised to find almost all of them outside when he opened the door. Bobby was the last one to arrive, and it wasn't anything strange because the distance between their homes was the farthest; but Jack was a bit shocked when he saw him in worn out jeans and jumper with a stain on it.

"I'm sorry for calling you, Crash. I hope Darcy isn't going to make you sleep on the couch for leaving her with evidently upset Brayden..." said Jack, when his friend finally arrived.

"Quite the contrary, Mate. She told me to come and inform you that if you need anything, you can call her."

"Thanks." Jack extorted the small smile on his face, the best he could do with being so worried, and they went to join the rest in the living room.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Thank you for your kind words. I'll try my best to update as often as it's possible, however I'm sick now so I can write all day and it's not going to be possible next week. But according to my plans this story won't have 10 chapters so I'll probably finish it quickly.

* * *

With almost the whole team gathered in the living room, it looked like the temporary bullpen. Tara was sitting by the small table, with her laptop in front of her and typing quickly on the keyboard; Jack, Bobby and Myles analyzed everything they knew to try to build a theory and come any closer to finding out where was Sparky Junior, as the team sometimes called Christopher. This time however nobody dared to bring up the nickname, afraid to infuriate already fretful Jack. He wasn't able to sit still, every now and then he was standing up and going around the house; he had to go upstairs at least once per half an hour to calm fidgety sleeping Sarah.

It was four in the morning when Tara took the cup in her hand without looking, only to find it completely empty. Her eyes were red from looking at the computer screen all night, trying to find anything. It seemed that whoever called Jack, knew what he was doing. She has already worked few hours trying to break through all securities, but it still didn't work and when she was trying to track the call, the program went crazy and the signal jumped all over the world. She looked up and her eyes stopped at the people around her. After listening to the short conversation a couple of times, they agreed that this person was probably one of the people from Jack's old cases. They couldn't be sure, but it was the only lead they had so they decided to look for anything in files. It was a lot of work, but they were later joined by Marlene and Evan.

They were two newest team members. Evan Walker joined their team soon after Sue decided to stay in D.C, after Dimitrius was officially made their supervisor. He was tall, well-built, with short, light blonde hair and blue eyes, and was a very friendly, easy going person, who was able to behave very responsibly and deliberately don missions. It was a surprise for a lot of people, but he got along really well with his training agent , Myles.

Marlene on the other hand, joined the team after Sue decided to quit. Everyone were surprised by her decision, but the reason why quickly became obvious for all of them. She and Jack were tired of hiding their relationship from the world and wanted to make it official; at first Sue wanted to just transfer to another team, but after finding out that she was pregnant with Chris, she changed her mind and quitted the F.B.I.. Even Jack was worried about it, when she said that she just wants to devote herself to her child and be a big part of its childhood; he was afraid that Sue'll regret her decision, but after six years the only thing she ever said about it was that it's been the best decision in her life.

Miss Taylor was quickly known by everyone in Hoover Building, for a lot of reasons. For the male part of the workers she was a new, young, beautiful agent, while the female part knew her as the owner of long, flaring red hair, and Bobby Manning's trainee. She was short and slim, and in comparison to Bobby's tall and muscular figure she was very small, and their look earned them a lot of funny looks. Everyone wondered how someone so slender could be assigned to be the agent, but it quickly became obvious when she overpowered a guy who was twice as big as she was without bigger problems. She seemed to be a kind and silent person with a huge heart, but her temperament turned out to be as big as her heart.

They quickly became a part of their family, and by the appearance in Jack's house they showed them that they weren't ungrateful. They brought all the needed files, and joined Myles and Bobby on going through them. Now, they were all sitting and looking at the papers unconsciously, tired after the whole night of staring at them. Jack left them before midnight, when Sarah started to cry; the girl didn't want to go back to sleep until he laid down next to her, and after they told him that it was absolutely fine with them, he just stayed there the whole night, sleeping shallowly and waking up every time his daughter moved in her sleep.

Tara glanced away, and saw few photographs standing on the fireplace. They were all there in one of them, members of the team with their husbands and wives, and if she remembered correctly it was taken on Jack's birthday. Another was from Jack and Sue's wedding day; they were looking at each other with so much love, that it was radiating from the picture. Then she looked at Sarah and Chris, hugging each other and grinning happily at the camera. They were spitting images of Jack, with his dark hair and chocolate eyes; only Sarah's features were a bit more Sue's, but it was often unnoticed. The last photo was of their whole family, and it was absolutely obvious for everyone who could see them, that they were very happy. She couldn't understand how could anyone want to harm such a perfect family.

* * *

Jack, according to the promise he made to himself, wanted to get to the hospital just after the doctor's round. He got up early and was able to take a shower, shave and dress himself just in time for Sarah's awakening. He helped her make all of the morning activities quickly, but wasting half an hour on weaving her a braid which she asked for really frustrated him. He only agreed to make it because it seemed that she was in a bad mood in the morning and he knew that there would be a huge fight if he didn't agree to at least try.

"Well, Sparky... I have to say that it's a good thing you didn't decide to be a hairdresser..." said Bobby, when they got downstairs, and Jack sent him a deadly glare.

"I'd want to see a braid weaved by you, Bobby." smirked Marlene, and Tara nodded.

"Hey, I only have a son! It's not like I have a person to practise on..! Jack at least has a daughter, so he should be able to make ponytails, braids and whoever knows what are all those other things called..."

"I bet that even if you had a daughter, Darcy wouldn't let you touch her hair. It would be a traumatic experience for the poor child..." said Myles and others chuckled.

"**Come. I... Make... Better...**" Marlene started to sign slowly, and then looked at Jack "What is the sign for braid?" she repeated the sentence, adding the sign Jack showed her, and Sarah smiled and came to her.

After a moment the girl came to the kitchen, where Jack already prepared cereals for her and the man sighed. She wasn't in the living room longer than five minutes and Marlene was able to make a beautiful French braid on her head. He looked in the direction of living room, where he saw his friends obstinately going through files, and Tara staring at her computer. They all looked terribly tired, but unrelentingly worked to find his son. He thought that he and Sue were really lucky to have such wonderful friends, and started to prepare another pot of coffee for them.

* * *

Sue was sitting at the bed, completely bored. The doctors just went out of her room after informing her that they have no objections to letting her go home, because they didn't notice any worrisome symptoms. She checked her Blackberry again; she wouldn't be able to answer how many times she's already done it since waking up, but she knew that a lot. There were no new messages from Jack, and it seemed that they didn't have any new information about Chris. It only raised her worries, because she knew that the more hours pass, the worse adds are for finding the missing person in a good state. She didn't even want to think that they may not be able to find him alive.

A moment later she saw Sarah run into the room and smiled slightly, when the girl flew into her arms. She hugged her tightly, and looked up to see Jack coming into the room.

"**Ready to go?**" he signed without even speaking.

During the years since he met her, he has become really fluent in ASL. She always appreciated that he took effort to learn it, to make conversations easier for her, but he worked even harder after they finally got together. He never made her feel worse or even different because she couldn't hear; quite the contrary, he tried to completely understand 'her world' and it made her feel really special. She was still a bit worried when they found out that Sarah couldn't hear too, but when she saw him with her it became obvious that it completely didn't matter for him, even though he assured her of it many times before. Their daughter was a daddy's girl, and had Jack wrapped around her little finger the moment she looked at him, when he took her into his arms for the first time. It was her idea to teach Sarah to read lips and speak, because she didn't want their parents to feel left out, as Jack's knew only basic signs and hers only a bit more. Now, Jack was talking to her using ASL as much as talking, and it had its advantages when nobody knew what they were talking about.

"Animal hospital?" she asked surprised, when they drove off the road leading to their house, and saw the building they were approaching. "Is Levi okay?"

"Well..." Jack looked down abashed, and explained everything to her.

"Stop reproaching yourself, Jack. Levi's going to be fine and that's what matters." she said, squeezing his hand and kissing his cheek. "You're only a human Jack, you aren't able to think about absolutely everything at once, especially that I know that you were worried sick... I guess you still are..."

"I think I'll be able to calm down only when Chris will be with us, sound and safe."

"I know, me too."

He watched her face for a moment and Sue knew that he wanted to tell her something. However, he decided that it'll be better to do it after checking on Levi. Jack went to talk to the vet, while Sue and Sarah went to see the dog, and only when the veterinarian explained everything to him, he understood how serious was Levi's condition. He soon joined his girls and saw him lying there, very weak but he was still wagging his tail happily.

"Hey, Buddy." he said scratching Levi behind his ear "I know you miss us, but you'll be home in a few days. They want to keep him here to be sure that everything will be alright when they release him." he looked at Sue, who only nodded her head.

"Excuse me..." Jack looked at the door to see a young woman standing there "It's good to see people treating their dog like a part of family, but Levi should rest as much as he can..."

They understood the hidden meaning and said goodbyes to Levi. A tear escaped Sue's eye when she saw the sad look in the dog's eyes when he saw them leaving, but she knew that it was for the best.

"Before we go home... You have to know something..." said Jack and related everything what happened in the past hours to her.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thank your for reviews :) Here is the next chapter. I hope you're going to like it.

* * *

Sue watched Jack, as they were standing in front of the animal hospital, and couldn't believe what she was seeing. He was telling her everything, but she still couldn't stop feeling angry. He didn't inform her immediately; he waited the whole night, even though he promised to let her about everything. At least, that was how she understood him but she definitely had her reasons for it. After all, they agreed a few years ago that he's not going to hide _anything_ from her, whatever it wouldn't be. She thought that information about _their_ child was one of the most important things which were included in this promise.

When she knew that he finished, she just took Sarah's hand and went to the car. Jack had no doubts that Sue was upset, but didn't say anything. She didn't even give him a chance for it, because during the whole ride she was looking everywhere but not at him. She really didn't want to make him a scene; at least not in front of Sarah. She was aware that their daughter would still feel the tension between them and know that something was wrong, but she could feel it all the time now. Nobody could say that everything was fine if their son was away and they didn't know anything about his whereabouts or at least how he was feeling. They were both terribly worried about him, even though they tried to stay calm; it wasn't going to help anything if they just started to panic and behave unreasonably, but could only bring harm.

She sighed, closing her eyes. It was really difficult to be composed and not to lose hope and patience. Hours were passing and Jack informed her that the team still had nothing what could be helpful. She was aware that the case was bad when forty eight hours passed, and there didn't even pass twenty four since Christopher's kidnapping, but if nothing really major happened, they weren't going to find him quickly.

She felt the car stop and when she opened her eyes they were in front of their house. She recognized other cars and knew that the team was still there, looking for any lead. Jack told her that they came last evening and it warmed her heart to know that they had such wonderful friends. She felt Jack's hand on her arm and looked at him; she could see concern in his eyes but she was still angry at him, so she just got out of the car and helped Sarah do it, too.

"**Sue, please..."**

"**I thought we had a deal. You promised me that you're going to tell me about absolutely everything!** **I wouldn't care if it was something trivial, but hiding information which has something do to with **_**our**_** son?!**"

"**Can't you try and understand that I did it for you?! Do you think I wanted you to know that our son may be in hands of some lunatic, who apparently thinks that I did something to him, when you are alone in the hospital?! I knew that you are worried, and I didn't want your worries to be even bigger when I can't even be there with you! We don't even know **_**who **_**it is, yet!" **

Everybody, who was sitting inside the house looked in the direction of the window, when they heard the arriving car. They recognized Jack's car without any problems and they didn't have to hear them to know that something was wrong. They immediately noticed Sue's angry actions and heard how strongly she shut the door to the car, first her own and then Sarah's. When they started to sign all of them immediately got lost; even for Tara, who was the most fluent in ASL among them, Jack and Sue signed way too fast. However, they didn't need to understand what they were signing to know that they were fighting; it was very visible in the speed and intensity of the movements. Sarah was standing next to them, her head moving back and forth between her parents, tears in her eyes.

They were completely lost in their fight until Sarah's cry came to everyone's ears and Jack immediately moved his eyes from his wife to his daughter. Sue, seeing it, did the same and anger disappeared from their faces the moment they saw the girl. It was immediately replaced by guilt, as they had no doubts that Sarah's reaction was the result of their quarrel. Sue immediately leaned down to lift her up and the girl clung to her, nuzzling her head in her mother's neck, crying heavily. Jack approached them and touched the child's head, stroking her hair, exchanging a sad look with Sue. After a while Sarah calmed down, and they slowly went into the house; Sue only nodded her head, acknowledging their friends' presence and went upstairs with Sarah, while Jack joined them in the living room.

"I'm sorry you had to witness it..." he said, with a mix of guilt, worry and sadness on his face, and Marlene, who was standing the closest to him, placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, we understand. It's a difficult time for all of you, for Sarah too. She may be small and not understand absolutely everything but she still knows that something's different. Her brother is gone, you don't act like you always do but what is the most important, she feels the change. Especially the negative tension between you and Sue, and when you two are fighting it's like the earthquake for her..."

"I believe that a lecture is the last thing Jack needs right now, Marlene." interrupted Bobby and Marlene sent Hudson an apologizing look.

He only shrugged, knowing that Marlene wanted well, and besides, that she was right. He and Sue knew that, it was the reason why they tried to avoid quarrels as much as it was only possible, but sometimes it just wasn't. However, they never fought in front of children and they did it in signing, because this way Chris wasn't going to hear them. At least they've never fought in front of them until today and he felt horrible thinking what Sarah had to feel.

Suddenly, Bobby's phone rang and everyone looked at him. Judging by his words, they were able to guess that D. was calling him.

"Okay, we're going." he said, finishing the conversation. "We got a phone call from a woman that she noticed a man pulling the child to the opposite block of flats. She wouldn't have called us if she hadn't saw the picture of Christopher in TV in the next moment, and she's almost sure that it was him. We have to check it."

Tara, Marlene, Evan and Myles quickly gathered their things and practically ran out of the house. Jack started to follow them too, but Bobby, who was walking in front of them stopped at the driveway and turned around.

"I'm going with you." Jack stated firmly, but Bobby caught his shoulders with an adamant look.

"No, Jack. You're staying here, with your wife and daughter. We've already bent the rules for you by bringing everything here and making a temporary bullpen in your living room, but that would be enough. You know that we're going to do everything what is in our power to find Christopher and bring him to you, so just trust us and let us do our job." Jack watched him with visible anger for a moment, but then it faded and the man only nodded. "Go home to your girls, they need you right now. I'll call you when we know something."

He stood in front of the house for a while longer, watching his friends depart. When he couldn't see their cars anymore he went inside and locked the door. He went upstairs to look for Sue and Sarah. He noticed his daughter in her room, sitting at her small table and drawing something. He watched her for a while before he heard sobbing. He started to walk farther, and then he noticed that the door to Chris' room were ajar.

Sue was standing in front of the chest of drawers, on top of which were a few frames with pictures. She was holding one of their son's toy, which he recognised as Christopher's favourite teddy bear, which he had gotten for his fifth birthday and was practically inseparable with it. He could see that her cheeks were wet from tears and she didn't notice that he was watching her. He slowly approached her and placed his hands on her arms, moving them slowly up and down. After a moment she placed the toy back on its place and turned around in his arms, looking into his face with teary eyes.

"**I'm sorry.**" he signed, and she only nodded before doing the same.

"They're going to find him, Sue... D. just called, they went to check the notification from a woman who says that she most probably saw our son..."

"I just want it to be over... I just want him back..."she said, wrapping her arms around him and hiding her face in his shirt, sobbing.

He was caressing her back, hugging her tightly as she was crying heavily, unable to hold her emotions any longer. She was worried sick about Christopher; he has never been away from her for such a long time without even a phone call. Even when he was spending the night at Mannings', because he and Brayden were best friends, Darcy always called her in the evening to let her know that everything was okay. Now she not only had no information, but even knew that her little boy was in danger.

"I know, me too." he said when she withdrew slightly, but stayed in his arms "Even though I trust Bobby and the rest, I still can't stop worrying... But we have to believe that everything is going to be okay." Sue nodded, and he kissed her forehead, before hugging her again.

As they were waiting for any information from Bobby or any other person from the team, they decided to go to Sarah's room and play with her. It hurt both of them when they noticed her looking at them with a huge sadness in here eyes and when she asked about Christopher, it took all of Sue's strength to stop herself from crying again. They didn't know how much time passed, but then Jack suddenly said that his phone, which he left in the living room, was ringing and went to answer it.

It was already fifteen minutes earlier, and Sue started to wonder what could take Jack so long. She went downstairs and when she reached the living room it became obvious. She saw her husband sitting on the couch, with his face hidden in his hands, and he was clearly crying. Her heart clenched, her legs bent under her and she felt like she couldn't breathe.

"Please, tell me that he's not..." she couldn't even say it, as her voice got stuck in her throat, and tears flew down her cheeks. He didn't answer her, and she fell to the ground, unable to stand any longer.


	5. Chapter 5

When he touched the button to finish the conversation with Crash, he had no idea what to do with himself. All of the emotions he felt were too much, and he just had to throw them out in one way or another. His phone soon flew through the room to hit the wall and drop to the floor in parts; he started to kick and hit things around him, and then hit the wall with his fist again, completely forgetting about the small hook protruding from it. He didn't even notice it at first, and although after a while he saw that he hurt himself, as the blood was flowing down the side of his hand, he didn't feel pain. However, at least part of his anger was gone, and he sat on the couch.

He couldn't stop thinking that it was all his fault. If he didn't press that he wants to go with them, Crash wouldn't stand with him on the driveway, they wouldn't waste this while and arrived there a bit faster. He hid his face in his hands, careful not to smear the blood on his face, and started to cry. He had no idea how long he was sitting there, but then he heard the whine, and he immediately recognised the voice as Sue's. He looked up and saw her, kneeling on the floor in the door, crying uncontrollably and repeating unintelligible things.

He was at her side immediately when he understood what had to cause this breakdown. He kneeled in front of her and cupped her face with his hands, making sure that she was looking at him. He couldn't sign right now; just like she sometimes wasn't able to find words and just switched to signing, he couldn't focus on finding the right signs.

"Shh, Sue, he's not dead, he's not." he said, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs, and he could see that confusion appeared in her eyes. "When the team arrived there and went into the flat, they were gone. Bobby said that one guy told them, that he saw a man with a child getting into the car and driving away few minutes before they appeared... He said that the boy was fine, but... It's my fault, Sue, I'm sorry..."

"Your fault?"

"I stopped them... I wanted to go with them and Bobby had to waste time on preventing me from doing it... If I hadn't done it, they would have arrived there in time, and most importantly, they would have been able to take Christopher from the kidnapper... He would have been on his way to us now... And now they're back at the starting point and it's completely my fault..."

"Jack, it's not your fault..." she whispered, pulling him against herself and wrapped her arms around him.

She could feel him sobbing against her, and held him in her arms, stroking his hair and back until he calmed down. She felt relief when he explained everything to her; even though they had no idea where Chris was, again, at least they knew that he was alive and fine. There was no way that she would be able to stop worrying before Chris was safe in her arms, but at least she knew that a few moments later her little boy was fine, so there was still hope of finding him like that.

"When I saw you, I just thought..." she said, and he slightly moved back, moving his fist in circle on his chest.

"**I know, Sue, I'm sorry.** I just... When Crash called and said that they were few minutes late... I wish I hadn't followed them outside..." he sighed and Sue took his hands in hers, squeezing them.

Then he flinched in pain and she looked down. Only then she saw the blood and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I'm okay... I hurt myself in the flash of anger..."

"But it still needs to be cleaned and taken care of. I'll be back in a moment." he nodded his head and watched her go out of the room to bring the small case with bandages.

* * *

When the team arrived at the bullpen, they were all visibly angry. They were all aware how close they were to solving the case, arresting the kidnapper, and most importantly, taking Christopher back to his parents. It was really difficult for Bobby to make this phone call to Jack; he knew that his hope was really raised high when he told him that they have something. He could hear a lot of things in Jack's voice when he informed him about what happened, but what pained him the most were anger, disappointment and helplessness.

Ever since they've met so many years earlier, he and Jack were best friends. Through the years their bond only grew stronger and in their hearts they were practically like brothers. They knew that they could always count on each other; there was no situation when one of them had problems and the second one would hesitate a moment to help him. Bobby would do everything not to see Jack hurting, even if it would mean risking his own life for his friend, for Sue or for their children. He knew that Jack would do the same for Brayden and Darcy, even if he wasn't the biggest supporter of their coming back to each other at first.

He sighed, sitting at the edge of the table in the conference room, where we went to make a phone call. He was really frustrated because of the way their whole action turned out; as Jack couldn't be a part of the investigation, he was the one leading the case and now he knew what his friend was feeling every time the case wasn't going well. One could say that this time it was different, because they were looking for a son of one of them, but it didn't matter. They always gave their best during the investigation, no matter what the case was about.

Suddenly he heard knocking and a moment later Lucy went into the conference room.

"It would be the best if you came to the bullpen." she said and he only nodded, but followed her to the bullpen.

He saw everyone behind their desk, but he also saw D. standing in the middle of the room with files in his hands. He just sat at the edge of Lucy's desk, which was the closest to the door to listen to their supervisor.

"Why don't we start with our best theory builder?" asked D., and they all agreed. "Marlene."

"Thanks. Well, we all agreed that the phone call indicated that somebody who wants revenge from Jack is behind kidnapping and we decided to check the files of his cases. Of course, it was the only lead we had, but you have to agree with me, that this way we can suspect every person who was ever put to jail by Jack. Considering that Jack works for the F.B.I. for a long time and worked on a lot of cases, it doesn't really give us anything because we really have a lot of potential suspects. I started to think that there has to be something, what will give us a real clue as to who is behind it.

I decided to analyze everything once again, paying more attention to all the details. Of course, some of them weren't useful, but there were also those, which allowed me to build the theory. Calling the kidnapper "the guy" all the time is a bit strange, so let's call him... Captain Hook." Myles, who was drinking coffee at the same time choked, and the rest looked at her with raised eyebrows, but Marlene completely ignored them. "So, Captain Hook said that he wanted Jack to suffer as much as he did because of him. It made me wonder, why did he take Jack's son instead of kidnapping Jack or trying to shoot him, or doing whatever else to hurt him? And, if he wanted to see Jack hurting because of having the family in danger, why did he take _only_ Christopher?

Think about the possible scenario. He has already gotten to the house and Sue had no idea that anyone was there. Kids were probably playing, Sue was preparing lunch for them. Levi had to be the first one to notice that something was wrong and he probably attacked Captain Hook. He hurt Levi defending himself, and Levi wasn't able to alert Sue about the danger. Sue said that she was in the kitchen when she was hit in the head; I guess that Chris heard her scream and as a curious kid, came to see what's going on. That's why Sue saw him being taken before she lost consciousness. Sarah had to be around too, because she had to find Sue on the floor, take her Blackberry and call Jack. We know that she was scared and sometime between the phone call and Jack and Bobby's arrival she went to hide in the storeroom.

The point is that Sue and Sarah were even easier targets than Chris. Sue didn't know that anyone was there until she was hit, so he wouldn't have any problems with taking her. We know that Sarah was crying for Jack when she made the phone call, so if Captain Hook was still in the house, he would hear her and could take her too before she realized what's going on. But he left Sue and Sarah in the house, so for me it looks like his aim was to take only Christopher.

Getting back to our leads, it may mean that the guy wants Jack to know what it means to lose a son, or generally a child. If I'm right, it allows us to narrow our suspect list to those who had children and lost them because of the investigation."

"Allow me to interrupt now, Marlene." said D. again and the redhead only nodded. "According to Marlene's theory, we could look at all the guys put in jail, who lost their families because of them. We would even find a few of those, who were single parents and would fulfil the theory even better. But, I've got the tests results of the blood found in the flat. It seems that the blood didn't belong to Christopher – lab technicians compared the DNA from the blood to Jack's, and then again to Sue's to be sure, but there is no match."

"If they thought that the boy isn't Jack's son, then they're the biggest idiots of the universe." They heard Myles comment and everyone looked at him "What? Don't tell me that you disagree! We all know that the noble Sue Hudson wouldn't cheat on Jack. Besides, I would understand that anyone who would look at the boy would have more doubts if it is _her _child, but his?"

"It's really nice to see you so indignant by the fact that it could cross their mind, but if you really want to give this lecture so much, go to the technicians. As I said, it's not Christopher's blood we found, but it gets more interesting here, because we have a match. Clifford Morgan."

"It rings a bell, but I can't really place it..." said Bobby, and Dimitrius took the photo out of files and stick it at the board.

"The case of Dustin Morgan was one of the first cases for Jack as the team leader." D. added another photo to the board and then Bobby clapped his hands.

"I remember it! It was when only me and Jack worked together out of the present team. I wasn't actually working on it because they sent me to help the team in Los Angeles, but Jack told me about it when I got back, because Clifford Morgan harassed him, and he even got a restraining order. But some time later he just disappeared."

"He may have disappeared, but it looks like he's back now. Tara, look for any information you can find on him. Bobby take Marlene and go to Jack and Sue. Find the case file, talk to Jack – he may give us some useful information. By the way, check how are they."

"What about us?" asked Evan, and D. looked at him.

"You're going to watch the recording of the monitoring. Maybe you'll be able to see license plates on the car or any other useful thing. We don't know what he's planning, but Dustin Morgan is dead, and if Clifford blames Jack for it we have to suspect the worst."

"Okay, then let's move!" said Bobby and went out of the bullpen.

* * *

**A/N:** You didn't think I'd kill Chris, did you? ;) My friend would say that it would be in my style, but not in this story. But, we're slowly getting close to the end of the story. Everything indicates that it's going to be a busy weekend for me, but I'll update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading, and even bigger thanks for reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Well... I don't really like the way this chapter turned out, but after changing it a few times it's still better than it originally was. As I said, we're getting close to the end. Only one chapter and the epilogue left.

* * *

The moment Jack heard Bobby inform him about the new information they had, he felt the anger coming back to him. Even though he heard the name for the last time a couple years before and he didn't think about him as a threat anymore, he couldn't stop but feel furious that it didn't cross his mind. Now, that he knew, it seemed absolutely obvious that Clifford Morgan should be the first person to think about.

He talked to Bobby for a longer while, while Marlene was looking for the right file. It was very difficult for him to sit still on the couch and just explain everything he thought, when he felt like he was going to explode any minute. He knew that the only reason he managed not to start pacing around the room and discharging his anger at everything around was Sue's presence next to him, her hand in his. She squeezed his hand every time she felt that his emotions are getting out of his control, and he was very grateful for that. The bandage on his hand only confirmed that acting on everything he felt could bring only harm, and he should be glad that his hand was the only thing that suffered.

Sue watched the conversation, not really understanding what they were talking about. She knew that the team had new information, and Jack apparently knew the person they told them about, but the reason why the man took their son was a mystery for her. She looked at her husband with questioning look, but he only signed 'later'.

Bobby and Marlene soon left, assuring them that they're getting closer and that Christopher will soon be back with them. They ate their lunch in silence, and then Jack started to clean after the meal, while Sue went upstairs to check on Sarah. She sat at the edge of her bed and looked at the girl, sleeping on her side, snuggled to her favourite pink plush bunny. She leaned to brush the strand of her away from her face and kissed her forehead.

After a moment of watching her little girl she stood up and went downstairs again to look for Jack. Finally she found him outdoors, kicking the football ball against the wall of the small shed in the back of the backyard. When he noticed her, she didn't have to say anything for him to know what she thought, and he came back inside.

"So, will you enlighten me why you got so angry when Bobby told you who is behind Chris' kidnapping? Sarah is asleep and she doesn't seem to be getting ready to wake up soon."

"Yeah..." he put his arm around her shoulder, and led her to the living room, where they sat on the couch.

"I met Clifford Morgan when the case of his son was given to my team... It's one of those cases we would rather forget, but it's impossible and even though it was a long time ago, I can still remember everything... A five year old boy, Dustin, was kidnapped from school by a lunatic. It seemed that it wasn't his first kidnapping, it actually matched the cases from other states, but he was never caught. There were no real leads, everything we found always turned out to be a dead end. And then, suddenly, boom! An older lady called that she saw a scared boy in the window of one of the abandoned buildings... She recognized him as the boy from the photo which was showed everywhere.

Of course, we immediately went there to do everything to get the child out of there... We had to be very careful, because the guy was armed and the space in the building was empty so he could very easily notice us... We were almost there, when we heard yells, and then shots so we immediately ran there... When we got to Dustin we saw that he was shot... The corridor leading to the place where he was lying was very narrow, so there was no way for paramedics to go in with their whole equipment. We had to carry him out, so I dropped the gun and ran to take him... I remember how he was looking into my eyes, I was telling him not to give up... He closed his eyes in the middle of the distance... By the time I got to the ambulance he was dead... He died in my arms..." Jack's voice broke, and tears flowed down his cheeks. He held his hand up when he noticed that Sue moved closer to him and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Dustin's parents were devastated... His father blamed me, that the F.B.I. didn't do anything to find his son... The fact that I was the one to carry him out didn't help, but even mate matters worse... To add more to it, Mrs. Morgan committed suicide, because she wasn't able to cope with everything... He lost his whole family and I was the one he blamed... He started to harass me; he often intruded me in my flat, sent me letters with reproaches but he never did anything what could get him arrested... I thought it's going to pass, but when it didn't, I just petitioned for the restraining order... He soon disappeared from my life and I thought it was all over... I was a fool..."

"No Jack, you weren't." said Sue and Jack just wrapped his arms around her and cuddled to her, nuzzling his face in her neck. She held him, stroking his hair and back, whispering comforting words to him. In one moment she felt him sigh and he moved away slightly to look at her.

"I'm sorry..." he said, and Sue cupped his face and leaned to him and kissed his forehead.

"I know you and if there is anything I'm sure about, it's that you've done absolutely everything to find this boy and bring him to his parents alive. It's not your fault that this man started to blame you, even though the only person responsible for his son's death is the man who kidnapped him. So stop blaming yourself for Christopher's kidnapping, because it's not your fault."

"But..." he started but she put two of her fingers on his mouth to stop him from saying anything else.

"There is no but. Thinking what you could have done to prevent this from happening isn't going to bring any good. You know that you aren't able to predict who you're going to come across at work and if he'll want to harm our family or not. As the F.B.I. agent, you would have to not have a family to be sure that nobody will want to harm them. We've talked about it, we've agreed that we're going to take this risk and I knew what I'm agreeing to, I knew that sometimes your work can be dangerous for all of us. I can't imagine my life without you, Chris, Sarah, and this little one, which have this misfortune to appear in such a difficult moment that we aren't really able to show that we're happy about it." she took his hand in hers and placed it on her flat abdomen "It's you who told me that I'm not responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world, and neither are you. So stop blaming yourself for something you had no way to predict or stop from happening; for me and for our children, because we love you and..."

"Okay, Sue, I understand. And I love you, too. All of you." he leaned closer and gently captured her lips with his.

* * *

The atmosphere in the bullpen was rather glum. They all completed their assigned tasks giving their best, but it didn't really give them anything big. All the information they were able to gather was useful, but didn't allow them to take a huge step forward in their investigation. They knew what car Clifford Morgan had, but they weren't able to see the licence plates; the make and colour showed them that they're looking for one of the most popular kind of cars in D.C.. They also had no idea what place Morgan took Christopher to after running away, and even though all of the patrols knew faces of both of them, they didn't notice them anywhere. Until the early evening.

They all seemed to be completely indifferent to the fact that the clock pointed that it was already six in the evening, but none of them even thought about going home. They were horribly tired, and took their shifts on the couch, but there was an unspoken agreement between them that they're not going home until they find Chris and take him to Sue and Jack.

It was Evan's turn to sleep and the others were sitting in the bullpen. Tara watched recordings of the monitoring again, hoping that she may find something they missed before; Marlene was sitting in front of the board, analyzing everything one more; Bobby was talking on the phone with Darcy and Brayden, trying to explain to the boy why he wasn't going home for the second night in the row and Myles was reading everything about Dustin Morgan's case very carefully, looking for any tips. After the long fight they were able to convince Lucy to go home to her husband and her little girls; she felt horrible that there was nothing she could do to help her friends and they sent her home because they knew, that the presence of her little angels is going to calm her at least a bit.

"We know where they are!" they heard suddenly, when Dimitrius stormed into the room and they all looked at him.

When the meaning of his words finally dawned on them, the reaction was immediate. Myles stood up so quickly that the chair behind him almost fell over, Marlene jumped off the desk she was sitting at and started gathering needed things, Tara ran out of the room shouting that she's going to wake Evan up and Bobby just repeated D.'s words to Darcy and finished the conversation, knowing that his wife is going to understand. Few seconds later Evan ran into the bullpen asking what they were waiting for and they all went out.

Dimitrius explained everything to them on the way. They got the phone call from a man, who thought that he saw Christopher. Question they asked him only confirmed it; he described the boy and his clothes very precisely, and they had no doubts that it was little Hudson. It became even more obvious for Bobby when he heard the location they were going to. He recognized it as the same building, where Jack said that they found Dustin Morgan.

"From what we know, he's exactly in the same place where his son were. We have information that he's armed. Everything looks like exactly like it did then... Let's not let it end in the same way."

They took their whole equipment and went into the building. Bobby, who was going at the front, could see that even the inside of the building was just like Jack described it to him. The same narrow corridor, the same empty space and then, when they reached the top of the stairs and were almost there, the sound which made their hearts stop. The sound of the gunshot.

Bobby immediately went out from behind the corner, aimed his gun at Morgan and pulled the trigger; before the man was able to notice what was going on, and most importantly, shoot again, the bullet hit his chest. He was shocked, because he didn't expect that and it gave them the chance to run to him, to make sure that he wasn't going to shoot again. His hand went to the wound, his shirt was getting red from the blood really fast and he dropped to the floor, choking with blood. Bobby however didn't pay attention to him; even though he was afraid of what he was going to see there, he immediately looked at the opposite side of the room. He let out a breath, feeling a huge relief at the sight of Christopher. He was sitting curled up, with his back against the wall, visibly shaking; his head moved up at the sight of his name, and he looked at Bobby with teary eyes, recognizing the voice.

Bobby gave his gun to Myles, who was standing the closest to him, and ran to the boy. He examined him carefully, making sure that he was fine, and then lifted him. Christopher's arms were immediately around his neck, as the child clung to him crying.

"It's okay, he's not going to harm you, you're safe now. I'm going to take you to mommy and daddy." he repeated, hugging the child tightly, and slowly going out.

Marlene and Tara were immediately in tears when they saw the two of them and exchanged happy looks. They were soon joined by Dimitrius, Myles and Evan, who had huge smiles on their faces when they watched Bobby take Christopher to the paramedics for the examination. At the same time he changed his clothes, and the moment he was told that the boy can be taken to his parents, he took him to the car.

"It was so close..." said Dimitrius with a audible relief, and Myles and Evan nodded their heads.

"He really wanted Jack to experience everything he did on that day... When we were there... It felt like I was in Jack's story..."

"What matters now is that the most important detail of the story is different. Morgan wasn't as good shooter as the guy who killed his son was, and the bullet missed Christopher." summarized Myles, and they all agreed. "By the way... Did anyone inform Jack and Sue about it? I'm sure they would want to know that their son is going to them..."

"I don't think that anyone called them. Bobby's going to make them the most wonderful surprise and let's not spoil it."


	7. Chapter 7

At the same time three remaining members of the Hudson family were spending their evening together on the living room. Both of Jack's girls were cuddled to him, as he had one of his arms around Sue's shoulders, and the second one around Sarah, who was sitting on his lap. They all looked at the same place; at the photo album lying on Sue's knees. They had a lot of albums on the shelf and most of them were full of pictures, but this one was the most special of them all. It was one of those who weren't filled completely and there was the title "The 'Sue and Jack' Story" on the front cover; they got it from their friends on their wedding day and promised each other that they're going to slowly add more pictures of every important event of their life together.

Sue opened the album on the first page to see a photo of her and Jack at the part the team held for her when she joined it. She could still remember how Bobby insisted on it being taken; he told them that every trainee had to have a photo of themselves with their training agent and was ready to hold them, just to make sure that she'll have one, too. Little did he know that for the next years, it was one of her most cherished pictures and she even had it framed, but hidden in the drawer so Lucy won't be able to see it and tease her about it. She only let this little secret become known when she and Jack started dating.

The next few pages were filled with photos of the next three years. They always had huge smiles on their faces when they reached the reminder of their undercover marriage, which always caused a lot of confusion for those, who didn't know about it. They also always laughed when they saw the space, where instead of the picture, their friends placed a note "Here should be the photo of the first time you were MAKING OUT. What a shame that Janice didn't take any.". This time however they managed only a small, forced smile when they looked at each other. The last photograph in this period of their life was of the two of them toasting with donuts on the day when everyone heard about her decision to stay in D.C. instead of going to New York. It was absolutely obvious for everyone that only her initial intention of leaving made Jack realize that if he ever wants them to share something meaningful, he can't avoid telling her his feelings forever.

Then there was a period when they were hiding their relationship and even though both of them were happy that they took this step, they were also very frustrated that they can't show this happiness. However, they used every opportunity to spend time together, even if it was only the afternoon work. Even now Bobby laughed that Jack never had so many paperwork, and he never did it so slowly as then, just to stay longer in the office with Sue, for who it wasn't unusual to want to finish everything at once. During Lucy's stays at her grandmother and her visits to her mother, they were able to do something more than just share the evening, and they went for a few trips then.

Finally they got to their engagement party; all of their friends thought that it's just a party for Jack's birthday, because they specially chose the date to mislead them. Sue regretted that she wasn't holding a camera when everyone got there and saw, that there were also members of her family because their face expressions were priceless. Only when everyone gathered they announced the news and it was considered one of the biggest surprises everyone ever experienced. Nobody even suspected that they were an item, especially that that the bond between them was always very strong and it didn't really change, they just stopped denying everything.

Few pages later was Christopher's first ultrasound picture. It was a huge shock for both of them when they found out about him, because they were always very careful not to get pregnant. Sue still had a goose bump when she thought about her parents' reaction, or more precisely her mother's; she could still see Carla's furious face when she was yelling at her and she still remembered that she felt like a teenager then, even though she was a grown up woman. Her father was a bit disappointed but quickly started to be happy that he was going to get the first grandchild from his daughter. He was even more happy when it turned out to be his first grandson in general, because his sons had only daughters then. Jack's parents however were ecstatic and Sue knew that it was also partially thanks to them that her mother appeared on her wedding.

It was one of the most wonderful days in their lives and everything was perfect. Even the weather made them a wonderful surprise; it was an awful summer in general because it was raining a lot, and everyone were sure that it's not going to be any different at their wedding. However the morning greeted them with a beautiful sun and a temperature high enough to make it a very pleasant day. The ceremony was wonderful and everyone who attended it was consentaneous that it was one of the most beautiful wedding ever for sure. They were also glad that they decided to have the photo shoot after it, and thanks to it now they had really beautiful pictures.

The next one was the photo, which Sue loved and hated at the same time. It was taken few whiles after Chris was born; after thirteen long hours of the labour she was exhausted and in her opinion, she looked absolutely horrible. However, she still managed a happy smile sitting on the bed with a blue bundle in her arms, leaning against Jack who had his arm around her shoulders. Following pages were full of Christopher's pictures; starting with him sleeping peacefully on the first day at home, through his first smile, tooth, unassisted step and other firsts, to Jack's favourite picture, placed just after Sarah's first ultrasound photograph. Sue took it on the holiday they spent in Wisconsin with Jack's family and it was very special for the whole family because it showed four generations of Hudson men. Jack was sitting in the middle of the bench in the garden, with Chris on his lap, his father at his left and grandfather at his right. They were all very similar to each other, and it made the photo even more amazing; it was also the last time they saw the oldest Hudson because few days after they left he passed away in his sleep.

The next picture was very similar to the one after Christopher's birth, this time however she was holding a pink bundle, Chris was sitting at the other side of her and even though she looked tired, she still thought that she looked much better. She touched Sarah's hand and pointed to the picture and then at her. Sarah looked at her with a smile and made the "little" sign, which she answered with a "yes". Then the girl rested her head on Jack's chest again and yawned.

"I think someone here wants to bed. **Come to mommy.**" she took Sarah from Jack, and the girl leaned down to give him a goodnight kiss.

He watched them go out of the room and upstairs, and when they were out of his sight he stood up and place the album on the table. He almost jumped at the sound of the doorbell and went to open the door. Surprised look appeared on his face when he noticed Bobby, but then he heard the word which made his heart jump.

"Daddy!" he heard his son's voice, and felt his arms grabbing the material of his jumper when he ran to him.

He immediately leaned down and lifted the boy, pressing him against himself, hugging tightly. Bobby noticed tears in his friend's eyes when he looked at him with a grateful look and nodded his head in a thank you. Manning only send him a small smile, and then closed the door. He wanted Jack and Sue to just enjoy the moment of reunification with their little boy in privacy, and just went to his car to go home.

Jack stood there, in front of the door, with Chris in his arms and couldn't believe it was real. He hugged the boy tightly, as if he was going to disappear the moment he'll loosen his grip; tears flowed down his face and then, when he heard the sound of something small and heavy falling to the floor, he remembered that Sue upstairs had no idea that Bobby has just brought their son home. He carefully went upstairs and noticed that Sarah was tucked in her bed and Sue wasn't in her room. Then he noticed a light in their bedroom and went in; Sue turned around at the same time and when her eyes landed on them tears immediately streamed down her cheeks.

She closed the distance between them within a minute and Jack placed one of his arms around her shoulders, embracing her and Chris at the same time. Her hands immediately started stroking the boy's head and she was placing kisses all over his face. Then she just hid her face in her son's tummy and started to cry with relief and happiness, letting all her emotion get out. The only thing that mattered to them at the moment was that everything was okay, that their son was back with them and their family was complete again.

* * *

It was late in the evening when Jack went out of the bathroom and made his way to the bedroom. He knew that Sue went to sleep even before he went to take a shower but he stopped in the door when his eyes looked at the bed. A small smile appeared on his face when he noticed his wife, sleeping curled on her side, with one of her arms placed protectively over Chris, who was lying just next to her. Only when he came closer he noticed another small figure in the feet. He leaned down and slipped his arms under Sarah's sleeping form and carefully lifted her to lay her in the middle of the bed, next to her brother. Then he took the duvet and placed it over the three of them.

He stood in front of the bed for a moment, just watching them. Now, when all of the strong emotions faded, they were all completely exhausted. The last two days were really difficult and he couldn't feel more glad that it was over. If someone would tell him fifteen years before how his life was going to look like, there was no way that he would believe them. Then he didn't imagine himself as the kind of person to really settle, have wife and children; now he knew that it was all because he's never met the right person and it became obvious for him when Sue came to his life. He loved them more than he ever thought was actually possible and couldn't imagine his life withot Sue, Chris, Sarah and this little one, which was growing inside his wife. He sighed, thinking how lucky he was; he had no idea what he did to deserve them and knew, that he will probably never know it.

"Jack..?" he heard Sue's voice and it got him out of his thoughts; when he looked at her he noticed she was looking at him sleepily. "Come to bed."

He slowly went to the other side of the bed and slipped under the duvet. He quickly felt Sarah snuggle to his arm, when he was lying on his back and looked at the girl. She was sleeping peacefully, just like her mom and brother. He smiled and closed his eyes; the moment he did it, he joined them in dreamland.


	8. Epilogue

**A/N:** Thanks to those who read this story, and even bigger thanks to those who left reviews. I thought I'm going to publish this epilogue a bit earlier, but it was a busy week, besides I was re-writing it few times. Here is the final version, and I hope you're going to like it.

* * *

**Epilogue**

**Two years and two months later**

Jack stopped his car in front of the house and reached to the backseat. A huge bouquet of sunflowers, Sue's favourite flowers, which he bought on his way home was lying there, waiting to be given to her. It was their eighth wedding anniversary and he was absolutely sure that Sue thought he forgot about it. He completely ignored hints she was dropping when they talked in the morning and saw the disappointment in her eyes, when he left for work. However, she had no idea how wrong she was and he was going to prove it to her, revealing the surprise he prepared.

He was home earlier than usual and knew that she didn't expect him, yet. He slowly went into the house and was immediately greeted by Levi. The dog ran to him and placed his front paws on him, demanding his attention and only got off him when Jack patted his head and scratched him for a moment. He was surprised when Chris didn't come to greet him at home, but his astonishment was raised when he realised that there were no sounds in the house, like there was nobody there. With three young children, two of which were very active and loud boys, he was unaccustomed to the silence and it felt strange for him, when he had a day off and Sarah and Chris were at school.

Jack started to walk around the house, wondering where everyone were. He only found his youngest child napping on the couch, and Levi lying right beside it. He smiled at the sight of the little boy, lying spread-eagled with his blanket on the floor. He lifted it and covered his son again, even though he knew that sooner or later it was going to land back on the floor. He was now sure that Sarah and Christopher weren't at home, otherwise Sue would never put him down to nap in the living room.

Little Alexander was a very fussy child and he was giving them a lot of hard time. After he was born they got more sleepless nights than they did with both Sarah and Christopher together. However, the boy was the exact opposite of his siblings in absolutely everything. He was the spitting image of Sue with his blonde hair and hazel eyes, but unfortunately he didn't get his mother's calm and cheerful personality like his older brother and sister. Instead, he cried every time he didn't like something and the worst fight from him was when he and Sue had to go somewhere and leave him with someone else. He absolutely hated when at least one of his parents wasn't with him all the time, and they even had to stay in his room until he fell asleep so he won't start crying. One of them often had to spend night in his room, as the boy was getting up because of the smallest noise and starting to cry for one of them to come. Jack's mother told him that he was exactly the same when he was his age, but changed after going to pre-school and he and Sue wished that it's going to be like that with Alex. They both loved their little urchin but they often wished he was a little easier to content.

After he made sure that his son was still napping peacefully, Jack stood up and went out of the room, leaving Levi to watch the child. Sue always told him to stay with Alex, just like she did with Sarah and Chris when they were still napping, so he will alert her when they wake up or cry. After wandering around the house a little more, Jack found his wife lying on the deck chair in the garden, sunbathing with a book in her hand, using the free time to relax as much as she was able. After getting the bouquet from the table in the living room, Jack went out to the garden and carefully approached Sue. When he was staying right behind her and she still didn't notice him, he extended his arm holding flowers in front of her.

"**Happy anniversary.**" he signed, when she stood up from the chair and turned around to look at him with a huge smile on her face. She immediately hugged him tightly.

"**Thank you! And to you too!**" Sue softly kissed him. "**If I had known you're going to be home early, I would have finished preparing my surprise!**"

"And what would that be?" he asked, when he sat at the deck chair and pulled her down to his lap.

"Well... I was thinking about it a while ago and got to the conclusion that I don't remember the last time we had the opportunity to spend a longer while alone, only you and me... And I thought it would be nice to change it, so I talked to few people... Darcy agreed to take Chris and Alex for the night, hoping that our younger son is going to be a bit easier to handle with his older brother and Lucy took Sarah. She actually took daughters of all members of the team and along with Marlene, they're going to throw something like a party for them..."

Jack laughed, hearing his wife's words and Sue looked at him, confused. She had no idea what caused the laugh, but waited patiently for Jack to calm down. When it happened, the man looked at her, grinning.

"You know, we kind of did it again!" he said and she raised her eyebrows "We got each other the same gift, again... I talked to Bobby about taking our kids for the night, so I can spend some time only with you..."

Sue smiled back at him, shook her head in disbelief and kissed him again.

"Where is Chris then? I saw Alex in the living room, so I guess he isn't at Bobby and Darcy's."

"I let him go to Eric, that boy who lives few houses down the street. Mrs. Vance is going to bring him in a moment."

"Let's hope she isn't going to wake Alex... Bobby will probably kill me if Alex is even more fussy than always!"

"He's going to wake up soon, anyway. Besides, you are just like him sometimes, or I should say that he is just like you. Don't look at me like that! I'm the one who is taking care of you when you're sick, and I have to admit that I don't only have four children then, but two very fussy ones!"

"I love you, too." he said and Sue smiled. "Did your plans involve something special for tonight?" she shook her head "That's good, because I'm taking you for a dinner, we can go for a walk then... And later, we'll see."

"Mama!" Jack heard his son's voice coming from the living room and groaned. Few seconds later Levi ran into the garden, nudging Sue with his nose.

"Alex is awake." he said and Sue nodded and kissed him.

She then stood up and went into the house. He sighed, resting his head against the chair and closed his eyes. He smiled at the thought of what he achieved in his life. He had a loving family – a wonderful wife, three adorable children; a great dog, a dream house in the peaceful area of the city, a job he loved and life full of happiness, even though other emotions were there sometimes, too. It was one of those things Jack Hudson was sure about – his life was absolutely perfect.


End file.
